NEW SCOTLAND — Krumkill Road might be closed to through traffic if a section near the Normans Kill bridge isn’t fixed.

It will likely cost a minimum of $3 million and could cost as much as $9 million, New Scotland Supervisor Thomas Dolin said this week.  The town board met in an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss the issue, he said.

Fred Dente, of Dente Engineering, told the board, “There could be a catastrophic, sudden failure,” Dolin said, adding, “Which is what really got our attention.”

The winding two-lane road connecting Normans Kill Road, near Voorheesville, with the Thruway was largely rural, but has recently see development on its southern side.

In 1998, the town did substantial work that cost about $300,000 on that section of road, Dolin said.  Since then, the highway department has done repeated repairs; the most recent was last summer.  Over the winter, it deteriorated, he said, explaining, “It’s worse than it was last year.”

According to a letter written by Dente a year ago, on May 4, there are two problems with the road.  “The first failure mechanism relates to the movement of the uncontrolled fill soil mass used to construct the roadway grades upon the side slope.  The second failure mechanism is a deep-seated failure that is occurring at an approximate depth of 40 feet below the existing site grades,” the letter says.

Basically, there is a fracture in the road because the soil beneath the road is slowly sliding toward the creek, at a rate of about two inches per year, which creates a scarp, or break, in the pavement.

“Because it failed again so severely, we called Mr. Dente and asked him to come back,” Dolin said of the town’s impetus for calling the meeting.

Highway Superintendent Darrell Duncan is weighing the available remedies, Dolin said, which could include blinking lights to slow traffic or a dead end on each side of the area.  Duncan could not be reached for comment yesterday.